The 'Chinese Google' just jumped into the driverless car race

The modified BMW 3-Series was able to drive an 18.6-mile route, successfully performing tasks like u-turns, changing lanes, passing other cars, and merging on and off highways, according to a press release.

Wang Jing, a Baidu senior vice president, told the Wall Street Journal that the autonomous vehicles will be used for public transportation and plans to field them in the next three years.

"We will cooperate with some governments to provide shared vehicles like a shuttle service; it could be a car or van, but for public use," Jing told the WSJ.

There are no current plans to commercialize the autonomous technology for private consumer use, according to the WSJ report.

Baidu, which is China's largest search engine, is planning to release vehicles that will be limited geographically. To do so, Baidu has to meticulously map routes with information like the height of traffic lights and location of curbs. But the plus side is that the car only has to focus on temporary obstacles, like pedestrians, rather than processing all sorts of information.

Chinese roadways could be mapped in five to 10 years, according to the press release.

But the Chinese company is not the only one turning to mapped routes — Google is making its own maps. Additionally, Audi, Daimler, and BMW acquired Here, the former mapping division of Nokia, to make real-time maps to aid their driverless car efforts, the Verge reported.

But whereas Baidu is hoping to release its driverless cars incremently based on geographic location, companies like Google and Tesla are aiming to have its cars fully ready by 2020.

Baidu is not the only one interested in using driverless cars for public transportation.

Though impressive, Baidu's successful drive in Beijing is on par with what many driverless cars have achieved. Google cars have been capable of doing all the things Baidu's car did for a while, and Teslas already have some autonomous capabilities like automatic lane change and parallel self-parking.